I thought this would be interesting to see peoples' opinions on the top thrash albums of all time. There can be up to 5 top albums, no more than that, which I think should help us to get a better perspective.

For me, well, there are the obvious greats like Slayer's first four albums, Metallica's first four albums, Sepultura's third and fourth albums, etc. Actually, I think Beneath the Remains and Arise are two of the greatest thrash albums of all time. As long as they can be counted as thrash and not as death metal, I will definitely list them in what are the top five in my opinion. Would you generally class them as thrash, rather than death metal?

If so, then the top five thrash albums in my opinion are, in no real order:

1. Slayer's Reign in Blood

2. Slayer's South of Heaven

3. Sepultura's Beneath the Remains

4. Sepultura's Arise

5. Metallica's ...And Justice For All

Not that much variety there I know, and I know I've missed out many more obvious candidates for top thrash albums - Megadeth's Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? and Rust in Peace, Kreator's Pleasure to Kill, Metallica's Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightening and Kill' Em All, Dark Angel's Darkness Descends, Slayer's Show No Mercy and Hell Awaits, etc. But the five I listed are five of the greatest thrash metal albums ever, in my opinion. Keep in mind this is what I believe are the greatest, nor just my personal favourites - if it was personal favourites instead I would place Testament's The New Order up there too, but it isn't. Those five albums are what I feel as a metal critic and a fan are five of the greatest thrash albums, not necessarily my top five in terms of most listened to or most favourite(though they are pretty top there too)

Thus, this isn't a favourites poll. This is more for critical appraisal really. In your opinions, what are the five greatest thrash metal albums ever, and why?

My reasons:

1. Reign in Blood: This album is undeniably awesome. Pretty much every metalhead in the world owns this album and with good reason, except those who like softer stuff only. This album is one of the pinnacles of brutality and extremeness in true thrash. It makes most Metallica seem a lot slower, calmer, and even softer at times by comparison. It's an astounding statement of brutality and hatred from four great musicians who were at the time clearly very aggressive, angry, and pissed off individuals. The greatest songs on here are some of the greatest metal songs overall in the whole of metal's history.

2. South of Heaven: This was actually going to be my number one originally, but it has a couple of weaker songs that drag it down a bit. The good songs on here, however, are not just good, they're absolutely awesome. The title track is amazing, with some of the best lyrics and riffs Slayer ever wrote and did. Behind the Crooked Cross, Mandatory Suicide, Read Between the Lies, and Spill the Blood are also all fantastic songs.

3. Beneath the Remains: The main thing that needs to be said here is that this album is astoundingly brutal. Thrash is rarely as brutal as death metal, but this album comes extremely close. It's so fast, aggressive, and skull-crushingly heavy, and also extremely thick and well produced without being overproduced. The best songs on here, such as the title track, Stronger than Hate, and Slaves of Pain are truly brilliant.

4. Arise: This one was a little slower than Beneath the Remains, but not groove oriented like Chaos A.D. was. That album, with its over slow and groove tempos, industrial focus and tribal nonsense was either mostly or entirely a sellout. The same cannot be said for Arise, which, while a bit longer and slower than Beneath the Remains, is still brutal pure thrash mostly. The title track is fucking awesome, so are Dead Embryonic Cells, Desperate Cry, Murder, and Subtraction. Also, this album retains the brutality and the pure thrash of Beneath the Remains while adding a little more variety and let not selling out like they did later with Chaos A.D.

5. ...And Justice For All: I wasn't sure about this album at first, but a lot of the songs are truly great. The progressiveness, greater technicality and slower tempos make the album quite different from, say, Master of Puppets. But the really good songs make up for the fact that the album is a bit on the long side.

So, discuss what are the five greatest thrash albums ever, and explain why, or what historical significance each album holds for you.

As long as each and every post in here remains a critical appraisal, I can see this being allowed to stay. Generally we don't do favorite threads, but your original post is good enough and sets the example that each post should follow. This is your only warning people, please try to keep the quality high. No one liners "This album is my favorite becuz its good and has nice riffs." Stuff like that is useless.

Megadeth - Rust in Peace
an album truly created in Megadeth's finest hour, this one has everything a thrash album should need. blasting riffs, pumping bass, pounding drums and vile and rancid alchoholic vocals. Holy Wars is a true winner due to it's riff-o-rama and changing of pace, not to mention an unexpected but not misplaced spanish-ish guitar lick to signalise the solo ownage to come.
Hangar 18 is like a "look what we can do" show off song but it totally doesnt feel that way, it thrashes and it thrashes hard. meanwhile songs like Take no prisoners and Tornado of Souls slap you just hard enough in the head to make it explode. even more credit to TOS because it has the most awesome solo in metal history.
this album mashes you to a brutal, blood squirting stump of a human being.

Killer riffs, great, yet funny vocals (Just listen to perish in flames!), a great drum performance (the intro of Darkness descends reminds me of the army!) and nothing too overdone; it's melodic and not too brutal, so i can't see how anyone dislike this.

(sorry for might beeing a bit short and easy, i can't describe things easy.)

I'm pretty sure that this has been done before. I can't exactly remember when, but this seems like one of those things that would pop up once in a while.

Anyway, just to try and get some worthwile discussion going on, I guess I'll contribute.

The five greatest thrash releases I've ever heard, in no particular order, are:

Demolition Hammer: Epidemic of Violence
Exumer: Possessed By Fire
Morbid Saint: Spectrum of Death
Sodom: Obsessed By Cruelty
Exhorder: Slaughter in the Vatican

Let's start with Epidemic of violence. This is the heaviest thrash metal I have ever heard. All tracks stand out as close to perfect, and yet this extreme and brutal all out thrash assault leaves you wanting more. Every single riff is delivered in such a way that it sticks to your head. The vocals are also perfect, giving the music the hateful attitude that allthrash view as their ultimate goal to achieve. This is close to being thrash perfection. This release is close to being the very reason I like thrash. If I had to put these albums in a particular order, that order would have either this one or the Morbid Saint release on the first place.
"HUMAN DISSECTION OF SKELETAL REMAINS!!!!"

Then comes the Exumer release. It has a lot of speed metal influence, and as such doesn't really have the morbid hateful vibe that I normally look for in thrash metal. But what it lacks in the vein of hatefulness (new word?) it more than makes up for by the sheer amount of energy being released every second of the album. The musicianship is top-notch. There really is nothing bad with this release. This is what thrash/speed should sound like. Pure, relentless energy and unbelievably catchy riffs.

Next is Morbid Saint. You know the hateful and morbid vibe that I was talking about? This band has so much of it that it goes way of the charts. Spectrum of Death accomplishes pretty much everything that thrash should do. The vocals are some of the most demented I have ever heard. The first time I heard them, I could swear they had put some sort of homicidal mental patient doing the vocals. The drums are also some of the best I've heard. The drums in the song "Lock Up Your Children" are simply out of this world. This is one of the most intense, morbid and demented releases ever, no matter the genre.

The only classic well known thrash album I have picked out for this list would be Sodom's "Obsessed By Cruelty". I find most of the classic thrash releases (Metallica, Slayer, Kreator....) to be quite overrated. This one isn't. This release really is one of the best. This release is like a more extreme version (early black/death elements added) of the big thrash bands of the time, but with loads more quality. I actually would pick this release over Agent Orange any day. This is a true old thrash gem.

And the last one, is Exhorders monolithic album called Slaughter in the Vatican. This is a genuinely evil piece, with a really sinister and morbid atmosphere that goes on throughout the album. It's slow compared to a lot of thrash metal, and nearly groovy sometimes, but it's heavy as fucking lead and full of some of the most memorable riffs ever to exist within thrash metal. This album's got some real attitude, and anyone that can't see it's greatness should IMO leave the hall.

This is pretty much my idea of really good thrash.

_________________

Nazhand wrote:

True Black Metal is NOT kind of Metal, that is a complete independent music so Nazhand believes "the name of music which is called Black Metal nowadays, should be changed to Blackness music and shameful name of Metal should be cut out from our music".

Last edited by Unholy_Asar on Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

To some, this album is a badly produced, badly performed pile of shit. To me, these things are necessary to make it what it is. Yeah, of course it sounds really rough, but the aggression put across is undeniable. In the vocals, the drums, the guitar and the rumbling bass which backs it all up. A lot of the riffs are forgettable, but I would suggest you look elsewhere if you want memorable riffs. This fucker grabs you and kicks you up the arse every time you listen to it, and that's why it's so great.

_________________

key2thegate666 wrote:

Once I was done throwing up I had to take another shit. Again it was diarrhea! While diarrhea was coming out of my ass I began to throw up. This fucking sucked! If only I had some Disgorge playing it might not have sucked ass much.

This is a tough one to narrow down. Thrash is my favorite subgenre of metal and there is a lot of amazing quality thrash out there so I'd have to come back and fill in more of the top 4... but I can safely say the greatest thrash album of all time is:

Metallica - Kill 'Em All

This is pretty much how I picture thrash metal to be, everything from the attitude, the riffs, the solos, the vocals sums up THRASH. This was when James and Co. were in perfect shape, the riffs are memorable, the lead guitar work is incredible and ridiculously amazing, with solos upon solos. The epitome of what thrash metal should sound like, the bass is pounding, the songs are memorable and catchy as well as having a great lasting value. I can listen to these songs non-stop and never get tired.

This album is the one that was the most brutal of the unholy trinity. It is heavy as hell, chaotic, and at the same time has a loose feel to it. The reason that I put it as number one is because of the guitar work. I've never really heard riffs like it before or ever since. They seamlessly combine thrash, death, and punk riffs into one cohesive package. And the solos are also unique to me. They are discordant and chaotic because it appears that Mille is just running his fingers up and down the fret boards. But they sound really cool and unique for some reason because it is actually melody and not just noise.

It's not just the guitars that make this album great, either. Drums play an equal role in this album. Ventor seems to act out his pseudonym by "venting" his anger on the drums. He plays very fast, hard, and as said before, loose. Some even call it sloppy, but I wouldn't think that sloppiness degrades the album one bit. If anything, the sloppiness makes this album better than other thrash albums out there. If everything is played "tightly" then I get the feeling that the band is restraining themselves from their total thrash capabilities. Thrash bands that play too tight tend to bore me because the tempos don't have much variation. A case in point would be Sepultura after Beneath the Remains. I can never listen to more than 4 or 5 songs on Arise without getting bored out of my mind.

And finally there are the vocals. Kreator keep things mixed up in the vocal department because they have two vocalists, and they each play every other track. Mille sounds like he's literally spewing venom whenever he utters a sound, and Ventor does a good thrash yell. It seems more fitting to hear Mille shout "Pestilence!" than for Ventor to do it. Or in the chorus for "Command of the Blade" it makes much more sense for Ventor to handle vocals than Mille because the chorus is sung sorta cleanly.

It is the best thrash album because it is heavy, chaotic, loose, fast, genre-defining, and most of all because it makes me wanna thrash. Other albums don't do that anywhere near this level. I've heard countless bands that worship Slayer, Metallica, Exodus, and Dark Angel but I've never heard a band paying tribute to this album before. And if you find any bands that sound like this let me know!

Sure, they have a punkish music style, mostly the way John Connely spit the lyrics. Anyway, It's really a fast and high pitch album we have here, not in the same vein as the classic bands that we all know. I always thought that a war thematic was perfect for a thrash metal album. Nuclear War is probably the most representative song to prove that.

I do not consider it as a standard thrash metal release but one of the best thrash metal piece ever written. It deserves to be called a classic, that's for sure. And Dan Lilker's bass is perfectly audible and the guy really slays. Most guitar solos are top notch and not too long, just perfectly done.

Overall, it's very catchy and impossible to avoid playing air guitar and headbanging.

Last edited by EvilInvader on Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

However, surely you guys still like Beneath the Remains though? I mean, that album rules. Heck, I even prefer to Reign in Blood in some ways due to its greater brutality. Surely no thrash metalhead could not love that album. I am only concerned about this because no one besides me as mentioned it yet.

What I am concerned about is that from the albums mentioned so far, it seems that very few people like Metallica or Slayer or Megadeth, save for Ravenlord266 who mentioned Megadeth and The_Boss who mentioned Metallica, which makes me think that people dislike them simply because they are more commercial. That isn't really true, is it? You guys still love all the classic Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth albums, don't you? I mean, we all still love Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Hell Awaits, Peace Sells, Master of Puppets, and all of those, don't we? I do, and they aren't anything to do with groove crap either. So surely they are still well liked by mostly everyone here? Just asking.

Anyway, good responses so far, keep them coming.

And I'll probably get Exhorder's album and get rid of that old groove shit that I used to like. Proper thrash is far better, though death metal is my favourite subgenre of metal.

For me, I'll have to mention Invocator's Excursion Demise. This album is probably the pinnacle of aggressive technical thrash. While it borderlines with being thrash/death in some cases much like Pestilence does on Malleus Maleficarum, there is a very clear realm of influence that can be heard on this album. Jacob Hansen is one of my favorite persons in metal. He does phenomenal production work, and I've liked every bands he's been in. With Invocator you have incredibly sharp and venomous vocal delivery, a guitar tone that's out of this world that attacks you with riff after riff after riff. Each one is crafted very intricately and with great care to the flow of the song. It's hard to top this one.

Demolition Hammer: Epidemic of ViolenceExhorder: Slaughter in the Vatican

I came here to list the same two albums, along with Darkness Descends. And since you basically gave my exact opinion on both of those albums, I'll take on DD.

Darkness Descends is an excellent, epic thrash record. Listening to this whole album in one sitting is enough for one's head to explode. Don Doty gives an excellent rapid-fire vocal performance, and the whole album is full of riffs... and riffs! Gene Hoglan's drum performance is also very impressive. I can't believe he is such a big guy, considering how he plays the fucking drums. "The Burning of Sodom" is my personal favorite, but there isn't a bad song on the entire record.

If I had to finish off the rest of my Top 5 at the moment I'd stick with:

Megadeth - Rust in Peace

The pinnacle of melodic thrash metal with some of the most memorable songs in the entire subgenre. Having quite possibly the best duo of Dave Mustaine and Marty Friedman making this an absolute all out riff-fest and having some of the best solos out there. It's impossible to deny the catchiness of the songs as well, a true classic.

Rigor Mortis - Rigor Mortis

This seriously has got to be some of the catchiest and all around best thrash metal out there. The guitars are some of the best, with awesome and memorable riffs and the lead guitars are in the top 3 of all of metal. Seriously, the solos are amazing as well as the overall catchiness of the album. I think every song is recitable for every respectable metalhead.

As for the other two, I really can't choose. There are so many that deserve to be up there... Sodom - Agent Orange, Kreator - Pleasure to Kill, Metallica - Ride the Lightning, Slayer - Reign in Blood, Demolition Hammer - Epidemic of Violence, Dark Angel - Darkness Descends, Toxik - World Circus, Morbid Saint - Spectrum of Death.. the list goes on.

Celtic Frost...well, they're Celtic Frost. One of the most influential thrash albums, and it's quite ugly, in a good way. Primitive thrash done right. Although the riffs would not fall into the spectacular category, they're just presented violently, and the classic Warrior grunt every now and then gives the album that feeling of...just greatness.

_________________

Trivium_fan_19 wrote:

definition of black metal..to put it in its most basic, basic form...operatic meaning orchestras are involved, along with the guitar/bass/drums, you get my drift.

This album is the one that was the most brutal of the unholy trinity. It is heavy as hell, chaotic, and at the same time has a loose feel to it. The reason that I put it as number one is because of the guitar work. I've never really heard riffs like it before or ever since. They seamlessly combine thrash, death, and punk riffs into one cohesive package. And the solos are also unique to me. They are discordant and chaotic because it appears that Mille is just running his fingers up and down the fret boards. But they sound really cool and unique for some reason because it is actually melody and not just noise.

It's not just the guitars that make this album great, either. Drums play an equal role in this album. Ventor seems to act out his pseudonym by "venting" his anger on the drums. He plays very fast, hard, and as said before, loose. Some even call it sloppy, but I wouldn't think that sloppiness degrades the album one bit. If anything, the sloppiness makes this album better than other thrash albums out there. If everything is played "tightly" then I get the feeling that the band is restraining themselves from their total thrash capabilities. Thrash bands that play too tight tend to bore me because the tempos don't have much variation. A case in point would be Sepultura after Beneath the Remains. I can never listen to more than 4 or 5 songs on Arise without getting bored out of my mind.

And finally there are the vocals. Kreator keep things mixed up in the vocal department because they have two vocalists, and they each play every other track. Mille sounds like he's literally spewing venom whenever he utters a sound, and Ventor does a good thrash yell. It seems more fitting to hear Mille shout "Pestilence!" than for Ventor to do it. Or in the chorus for "Command of the Blade" it makes much more sense for Ventor to handle vocals than Mille because the chorus is sung sorta cleanly.

It is the best thrash album because it is heavy, chaotic, loose, fast, genre-defining, and most of all because it makes me wanna thrash. Other albums don't do that anywhere near this level. I've heard countless bands that worship Slayer, Metallica, Exodus, and Dark Angel but I've never heard a band paying tribute to this album before. And if you find any bands that sound like this let me know!

Fucking hell, add that as a review!

_________________

key2thegate666 wrote:

Once I was done throwing up I had to take another shit. Again it was diarrhea! While diarrhea was coming out of my ass I began to throw up. This fucking sucked! If only I had some Disgorge playing it might not have sucked ass much.

Since everyone seems to love Darkness Descends so much, I think I might give it a second chance. I bought it several months ago and I never really listened to it, because the first time I tried it I thought it was incredibly boring. Same for any of Metallica's stuff. Thus my favourite thrash bands were Slayer and Sepultura. And they still are - I still prefer brutal, fast, skull crushing thrash like Reign in Blood, Beneath the Remains and Arise to melodic thrash like Megadeth, Metallica, and the like. But I am more tolerant of the more moderate stuff than I used to be now. I recently bought ...And Justice For All and I like it a lot, save for the ultra slow ballad song "One" which I think is horribly overrated. The other songs on that album pretty much all kick ass, especially "Harvester of Sorrow" "The Shortest Straw" and "Blackened".

I know this is meant to be for suggestions, but I'd just like to know: What do you guys think of Beneath the Remains? I think it is an awesome thrash album and probably the pinnacle of the brutal side of thrash, along with albums like Reign in Blood, and I suppose Pleasure to Kill. What do you guys think of Beneath the Remains as a thrash album?

I may as well mention, I love Testament's The New Order and would recommend it to any thrasher. It's very fast and aggressive, as good thrash is, and aside from the intros it's pretty damn brutal. Especially the title track, which along with "Into the Pit" ranks among my favourite ever thrash metal songs, although my very favourite thrash metal songs are probably:

Stronger than Hate by Sepultura
Angel of Death by Slayer
Postmortem by Slayer
South of Heaven by Slayer

What do you guys think of Beneath the Remains? I think it is an awesome thrash album and probably the pinnacle of the brutal side of thrash, along with albums like Reign in Blood, and I suppose Pleasure to Kill. What do you guys think of Beneath the Remains as a thrash album?

I don't mean for this to sound condescending, but I wouldn't go crowning a king of "brutal thrash" until you have heard Morbid Saint's "Spectrum of Death" and the first two Demolition Hammer albums. Please check those out if you haven't yet.

I know this is meant to be for suggestions, but I'd just like to know: What do you guys think of Beneath the Remains? I think it is an awesome thrash album and probably the pinnacle of the brutal side of thrash, along with albums like Reign in Blood, and I suppose Pleasure to Kill. What do you guys think of Beneath the Remains as a thrash album?

It's a great example of quality thrash. That album and Arise are probably my two favorite Sepultura albums. Mobid Visions is good also, but something seems to be missing from that album, in my opinion.

What do you guys think of Beneath the Remains? I think it is an awesome thrash album and probably the pinnacle of the brutal side of thrash, along with albums like Reign in Blood, and I suppose Pleasure to Kill. What do you guys think of Beneath the Remains as a thrash album?

I don't mean for this to sound condescending, but I wouldn't go crowning a king of "brutal thrash" until you have heard Morbid Saint's "Spectrum of Death" and the first two Demolition Hammer albums. Please check those out if you haven't yet.

I wish I could...sadly they aren't available on Amazon.co.uk, which is where I buy almost all of my metal albums from.

However I did listen to some of Demolition Hammer's first album on iTunes and that was pretty brutal indeed. So was Exhorder's Slaughter in the Vatican, and I can buy that. Should I get Slaughter in the Vatican, and also The Law?

One other thing: you can't deny that Beneath the Remains is a pure thrash album and is incredibly heavy and aggressive, surely you agree it makes stuff by Metallica and Megadeth seem very moderate in comparison? Don't you still like Beneath the Remains?

NocturnalHolocaust wrote:

It's a great example of quality thrash. That album and Arise are probably my two favorite Sepultura albums. Mobid Visions is good also, but something seems to be missing from that album, in my opinion.

Well said, I agree. Indeed, those albums are great. I tried Morbid Visions but the production was a little poor to say the least.

Arise is good too - it has a few of those annoying industrial and brazilian influences that later Sepultura would totally overuse and abuse, but not too many. Most of it is still proper balls out thrash - the opening title track "Arise" being a good case in point for that.

I wish I could...sadly they aren't available on Amazon.co.uk, which is where I buy almost all of my metal albums from.

One other thing: you can't deny that Beneath the Remains is a pure thrash album and is incredibly heavy and aggressive, surely you agree it makes stuff by Metallica and Megadeth seem very moderate in comparison? Don't you still like Beneath the Remains?

I'd recommend going with the illegal downloading route to track down some Morbid Saint and Demolition Hammer. The albums are legitimately hard to obtain at a fair price right now, so you won't even have to well up with guilt. Just grab them when/if they are re-issued.

I like Beneath the Remains well enough, but I'm more of a Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation kind of guy. Nine times out of ten if I put on Sepultura thats what it is going to be. More often than not, if I'm trying to listen to some South American thrash (black/death/thrash, to be precise) I'd rather listen to I.N.R.I or Bloody Vengeance. Yes, Beneath the Remains looks "brutal" next to Megadeth and Metallica, but Megadeth looks "brutal" next to Anthrax. Its all relative.

I wish I could...sadly they aren't available on Amazon.co.uk, which is where I buy almost all of my metal albums from.

One other thing: you can't deny that Beneath the Remains is a pure thrash album and is incredibly heavy and aggressive, surely you agree it makes stuff by Metallica and Megadeth seem very moderate in comparison? Don't you still like Beneath the Remains?

I'd recommend going with the illegal downloading route to track down some Morbid Saint and Demolition Hammer. The albums are legitimately hard to obtain at a fair price right now, so you won't even have to well up with guilt. Just grab them when/if they are re-issued.

Actually, I can download Demolition Hammer's first album legally from iTunes, where I pay for it at a fairly low price. But I prefer to buy my albums properly. I'll have to see.

I mean, how brutal is brutal really? Even the most brutal thrash isn't as brutal as full fledged death metal. Thrash isn't meant to be that brutal. If I want to hear something really brutal I may as well listen to my death metal albums, which I have tons of: Altars of Madness, Covenant, Deicide, Legion, Cause of Death, Let Us Pray, Scream Bloody Gore, Eaten Back to Life, Tomb of the Mutilated, etc, and I own all of those plus about 40 more, all make even the most brutal thrash sound, well, less brutal.

I might check out Demolition Hammer anyway, I'll have to see. But I think I'll go with Exhorder's Slaughter in the Vatican. What is that album like?

Quote:

I like Beneath the Remains well enough, but I'm more of a Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation kind of guy. Nine times out of ten if I put on Sepultura thats what it is going to be. More often than not, if I'm trying to listen to some South American thrash (black/death/thrash, to be precise) I'd rather listen to I.N.R.I or Bloody Vengeance.

So you do like raw, underproduced, "cult" thrash, then?

Do you still like listening to well produced metal as well though, provided it is still proper?

Quote:

Yes, Beneath the Remains looks "brutal" next to Megadeth and Metallica, but Megadeth looks "brutal" next to Anthrax. Its all relative.

True enough. Albums like Eaten Back to Life, Left Hand Path, Altars of Madness, Deicide, Slowly We Rot, and the like make all of those look less brutal by comparison, since they are proper death metal.

And is Anthrax really that soft? I'm talking about Anthrax's second or third or fourth album vs Megadeth's second, third, or fourth album. Surely Anthrax isn't that much less 'brutal' than Megadeth even in those albums?

When it comes with Sepultura, I think Beneath The Remains is overrated. I surprisingly like Arise, but I just don't like BtR, I just feel a lot of filler riffs in that one. Schizophrenia is by far their best imo, what I would call one of the greatest thrash albums of all time. Riff, after riff, after riff, there is no wasted time with any of them.

Vio-lence's "Eternal Nightmare" is another one. For some people, the vocalist really turns them off, but I like them. I love the cartoony feel of the album, yet it has some of the fastest, heaviest moments in thrash. Lots of riffs too.

Demolition Hammer's Tortured Existence. While not as heavy as the one that came after it, I think this one's more consistent when it comes to the riff department.

Flotsam & Jetsam's No Place For Disgrace. One of the few melodic thrash albums that does not have weak or boring songs (whether it be one or a couple). Really shows what Newsted was capable of in the songwriting department too.

Exhorder's Slaughter In The Vatican. I cannot reccomend this album enough. It has one filler, but the other tracks are so good you forget about that one. The guitar tone is thick-as-a-fucking-brick and these guys really knew how to write heavy riffs. It is the one album I can name that while still being brutal can make you laugh (the "and I'll make you... EAT MY SHIT!" part in particular). It is one of the few thrash albums that I have heard, where the quality doesn't dip when the band goes mid-tempo. If you haven't heard this album yet, you're missing out.

_________________Bell, book and candle, candle, book, bell,forwards and backwards to damn me to Hell.

This album just has the perfect combination of melody, intensity, speed, aggression, and heavy riffs. It all joins in perfectly, with capable musicians playing everything, excellent solos that combine shredding and melodic catchiness in a way not many are capable of and plenty of nifty gimmicks to keep you entertained. It also has somewhat interesting lyrics that aren't the typical demons satan zombies metal you find in thrash but don't come off as forced out of the desire to seem important, like many other 'political metal lyrics' do, they also have a great great vocal delivery that fits them and the overall atmosphere of the album perfectly. Last, it doesn't suffer from the issue of the songs blending into each other by the end which is the issue with many thrash albums (COUGHREINGINBLOODCOUGH), as all the songs are very different, yet still maintain a flow.

So! There is reason why this was the #1 thrash album of the metal archives list.

_________________

Zorg85 wrote:

someone knows a site where I can get inverted crosses

Last edited by trueMunchies on Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Sodom - Better Off Dead, it's just a magic record for me. The songs are addictive and accessible, yet never lacking in heaviness. Hoffman's guitar sears, Angelripper is Angelripper and Witchhunter's drums have a great feel to them (which isn't something you'd normally associate with thrash). I know it's not groundbreaking or anything, but it's an awesome record. Also Agent Orange and Persecution Mania.

Slayer- Reign In Blood, my very first thrash record. The production is immense, the songs are so tight and memorable. Words can't really describe how powerful and fresh it sounded when I was 13 years old.

Metallica - Ride the Lightning. A great atmosphere to this one. I like the weird schlocky guitar sound, the sound effects and the adolescent vibe to the vocals. The production is lacking in depth but somehow it works. The songs are as epic as Metallica ever got, For Whom the Bell Tolls is extraordinary and Creeping Death is the best song they ever did, I love the lyrics so much. For a very short moment, Metallica were nearly perfect.

Megadeth - Peace Sells. Again, more nostalgia. When I first heard this it sounded like the most old school and cheesy thing I'd ever heard. Guitar solos everywhere in an era were they'd been outlawed. The song writing again is exceptional, time has not changed my love for it.

Overkill - Years of Decay. I'm new to this one, having only had it for a few months but it's addictive. It is what Master of Puppets should of been. At first it sounded like fairly standard albeit brilliant thrash but then came all these long doomy workouts... a strange but excellent twist. To me it's Bobby's vocal peak.

_________________'Sometimes you have to be a bigot in order to beat bigger bigots' - G. Marenghi.

I have always thought Kreator's Coma of Souls is underrated, VERY. Even though I like Pleasure to Kill, the production made some riffs very hard to listen, the same problem that Darkness Descends has. They could be great, but it's harder to get into it. While Coma of Souls is a fucking rifforama all over the way, and of course it has PROMISEOFABETTERFUTUREISALIEEEE! And while it's not as brutal as PtK, it's much more organized, and I like it's guitar tone much more

Then there's Heathen's Victims of Deception! It's the best Tech-Thrash album I've ever heard, they are able to wank without it sounding like wank. The songwriting is very cool, and there's riffs and solos and then a little bit of more solos all over the place. And Dave White's voice full of vibrato like in the chorus of HYPNOTIHIHIZEHED just adds to the charm.

It's one of the most celebrated thrash albums out there. I love it, a lot. But PtK is always the first Kreator album mentioned by most people. It's just the most famous I suppose and obviously it broke more sonic new ground.

_________________'Sometimes you have to be a bigot in order to beat bigger bigots' - G. Marenghi.

Obviously, the best thrash albums of all time are History of a Time to Come and Dreamweaver.

Sabbat (UK) are without a single doubt the masters of thrashing metal. Originality, dynamic song structures, epic album concepts, godlike guitars, necksnaping rhythms, great lyrics, savage vocals, combined with a take no prisoners attitude.

Last edited by Blutrunst on Mon Sep 08, 2008 6:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Obviously, the best thrash albums of all time are History of a Time to Come and Dreamweaver.

More elaborate reply, please.

Coma of Souls has some very good riffs, but I find it somewhat too "happy" sounding - not just the solos (in fact, I kind of like the solo of Agents of Brutality), but the riffs... Parts like the second half of Terror Zone is just so weird and out of place.

But the last riff of Material World Paranoia is one of the best riffs ever written.

I'll start by saying Sodom's In the Sign of Evil. This is the blacker side of thrash, which is for the most part exactly how I like my thrash. The riffs are fast and heavy, and I just love the inhuman vocals. When it comes to the "big 3" of german thrash, Sodom have always been the best IMO.

Next I'll say Metallica - Kill 'Em All. I've been listening to this a lot lately. The riffs are very catchy but they aren't poppy or anything like that. The solos are good, nothing spectacular, but Kirk was never the best lead player in the world. Lars' drumming was actually very good on this record. James sounded downright evil at times. A lot of classics were on this record i.e. Hit the Lights, Four Horsemen etc.

Venom - Welcome to Hell. Black Metal may be their most revered work, but I think their debut is the better of the two. It's more raw, dirty and just downright fucking necro sounding. Cronos' vocal assault was just that: an assault on the ears. The playing may have been sloppy as fuck, but that doesn't bother me.

Bathory - S/T. Again, the blacker side. Totally demonic vocals and aggressive riff work make this a classic. This may be the most extreme thrash record ever made, and while you can debate whether this is actually thrash or all out black metal, I think the riffs speak for themselves.

Megadeth - Rust in Peace. Just an all out riff assault, and great riffs too. Some many not like Dave's vocals but I think they fit just fine. Nick's drumming is also something to be absolutely worshipped. And you can't forget the solos either. Another point. This album has one of the best Megadeth songs ever: TAKE NO PRISONERS!

_________________Winds and storms embrace us now
Lay waste the light of day
Open gates to darker lands
We spread our wings and fly away

For me, I'll have to mention Invocator's Excursion Demise. This album is probably the pinnacle of aggressive technical thrash. While it borderlines with being thrash/death in some cases much like Pestilence does on Malleus Maleficarum, there is a very clear realm of influence that can be heard on this album. Jacob Hansen is one of my favorite persons in metal. He does phenomenal production work, and I've liked every bands he's been in. With Invocator you have incredibly sharp and venomous vocal delivery, a guitar tone that's out of this world that attacks you with riff after riff after riff. Each one is crafted very intricately and with great care to the flow of the song. It's hard to top this one.

This album is incredible. Overall, it reminds me very much of Demolition Hammer in its heaviness (guitar tone, production, vocals...), but it's just much more damn technical.

I'll mention Torture's Storm Alert instead of praising Darkness Descends and Spectrum of Death again. It is brutal thrash, but has some touches of lighter thrash shown in the riffage. The vocals are morbid and twisted, and the riffs constantly change from fast to slow and vice versa. Most songs are very long by thrash (and espeically brutal thrash) standards, but they have wirtten enough riffs to fill all the time. These songs are like mini-Black Prophecies, with massive riffage in the middle and ever changing. One thing to remember is: don't get the remaster. It is pretty much a prime example of "too clean that it's bad" type of production, while the original is raw to a perfect extent.

Infinitely superior to [the still awesome] Reign in Blood, this album simply explodes with atmosphere and menace. Dispensing with the 'Judas Priest on amphetamines' bounciness of Show No Mercy, Hell Awaits captures the band at their most murky - although that in part is due to the terrible production. Whereas Reign in Blood shimmers and slices with a surgeon's practiced accuracy, Hell Awaits maniacally hacks with rusty instruments - the result being songs that often appear rushed and indeed occasionally sloppy. Guitar squeals, dirges, and feedback pop up in almost every song, but it's all held together by Dave Lombardo's incredible drumming, the prime example being Kill Again. This is also Tom Araya's last album as a singer capable of more than a tuneless bark, and each track is imbued with a different and frenzied vocal display. Lyrically the album is varied and interesting, the pinnacle probably being the insanely underated Necrophiliac. The solos are different from those of Show No Mercy in that they sound at times totally unconnected with the song they're in - chaotic, ridiclously ostentatious, and oh so fucking good! In short, Slayer peaked with Hell Awaits, and my only hope is one day they 'rediscover Satan' and make a real thrash album again.

2] Overkill - Taking Over.

Exciting, dynamic, punkish [in a good way] thrash, with one of metal's great vocalists.

3] Sadus - Illusions [chemical exposure]

As good as Reign in Blood? Fuck yeah, with one of the most intense vocal performances i've ever heard. Also you can't really go wrong with Steve DiGiorgio on bass.

4] Megadeth - Rust in Peace.

Yes, Mustaine is a cunt of almost biblical proportions, but this is his masterpiece.

5] Kreator - Pleasure to Kill.Aces_high summed it up brilliantly!

_________________http://kinghenry.info/The most extreme novel of the past thirty years - unforgettable and truly disturbing.

Punishment for Decadence is up there with the thrash classics, but i'm gonna have to say that the best thrash album of all time would have to go to Kreator-Pleasure to Kill. I think thrash is meant for one thing and thats pure fucking aggression, which Kreator had on PtK

Just for the sake of it i'm going to mention couple of underdogs here...

Paradox - Collision Course
Modern masterpiece of thrash metal. Incredibly complex and rewarding compositions yet without feeling difficult or overwhealming. The kind of album you listen to for weeks, even months, and discover new details each time you listen. Very good instrumentation and lineup. Alternating between fast and slow, usually fast. The solos are some of the best i've heard - chaotic in that Randall Shawver type of way. Not a weak song to be found and no song sounds alike.

Holy Moses - Finished With the Dogs
The fastest and one of the most extreme thrash albums of the 80s. Very tight instrumentation. Excellent drumming in particular. Sabina is on top of her game, deliving some of the most evil vocals ever recorded. Songs are straightforward and short and none of them are weak. Good variation between songs which is crucial to this type of music, and quite hard to accomplish in reality but Holy Moses pull it off. In short, very intense and well played music-- a true headbanger.

This album is vicious, technical and fuckign EVIL. Incredible riffing throughout the whole album and probably the best DiGiorgio's performance. The bass playing is insane. Darren Travis screams, sings and spit like a psycho. And the drumming...THE DRUMMING. Allen never really topped what he did on this

Even by today standards, Swallowed in black is still very aggressive, very violent and quite technical. And the song The Wake is what I call PERFECT Thrash.

1. Kreator - Pleasure to Kill
For historic significance to the genre alone this has to be the #1 thrash album of all time, and to hell with anyone who says otherwise. Most people today can agree the primitive-proto-death/thrash stuff Kreator put forth on this album is still incredibly brutal, and it came out in fucking 1986. While the 'big 4' were playing it safe, putting out mediocre releases like reign in blood and master of puppets Kreator took HUGE leaps forward influencing where thrash (as well as death metal) would go in the near future. Yes, the music can get sloppy at times, but if you've got a big problem with that you're listening to the wrong genre in the first place.

2. Possessed - Seven Churches
While Kreator may have taken some huge leaps forward in the sound a year later, no one will ever argue against Seven Churches being just as (if not more so) influential in the development of death metal and thrash metal as its German counter-part. To think a bunch of kids who weren't even old enough to vote or buy their own booze wrote the material that appears on this album in 85 is in and of itself stunning, that its as good as it is and has stood the test of time so incredibly well puts it on a whole different level. There's a reason why this is considered canon, and its a very, very, very, very good reason.

I'll be back later to add writing for the next three, but I can say they'll likely be 'No More Colour' by Coroner, 'Carnivore' by Carnivore, and 'Eternal Nightmare' by Vio-Lence (although perhaps Rigor Mortis' s/t might find its way in there).

MetalSupremacy wrote:

Since everyone seems to love Darkness Descends so much, I think I might give it a second chance. I bought it several months ago and I never really listened to it, because the first time I tried it I thought it was incredibly boring. Same for any of Metallica's stuff. Thus my favourite thrash bands were Slayer and Sepultura. And they still are - I still prefer brutal, fast, skull crushing thrash like Reign in Blood, Beneath the Remains and Arise...

Wait, wait, wait, wait, you enjoy the pinnacle of 'going through the motions' thrash (slayer), but you thought Darkness Descends was boring? What? Were you in a coma when you listened to it or something? Not only that, sepultura's later two abominations beat out their first two albums for you?

I don't get it, I really, really, really don't get it. I'm puzzled enough to not see 'Pleasure To Kill' on your original top 5 given what you're saying here. I'm just going to ignore this before my brain melts I think.

_________________NP: METALLIKA - ONION

Last edited by TheClansman on Mon Sep 08, 2008 8:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.